Glimpses
by Hrist Valkyrie
Summary: In times where anxiety, fear and pain grips our soul and clouds our better judgment, our heart conjures and brings back glimpses of long forgotten memories that lay dormant in the recesses of our heart.Why? To give false hope or to give strenght to go on?


A/N: I have formerly named this story's prototype as hatenai yami but I was bored today and edited it. Actually, I did too much revision and now the story is quite different than the former. It gives a different message than the former so I guess these calls for a posting. Oh yeah, I'm going to edit my other stories cause I've seen it and I saw how many errors I made. I'll erase the former one so don't look for it anymore, anyway this is better, so enjoy people.

Disclaimer: I do Not own Naruto.

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In times where anxiety, fear and pain plagues our soul and clouds our better judgment, our heart conjures and brings back glimpses of long forgotten memories that lay dormant in the recesses of our heart. Why? To give a false sense of security, of peace in the turmoil that faces us? Or to give us strength to valiantly trudge on even though everything is in vain? You decide it on your own.

Hinata Hyuuga thought she had known and felt what real fear was... She had thought she had experienced the scariest experiences before, being beaten to a bloody pulp by your own cousin with a murderous intent and watching a bloodlust driven Gaara slaughter and crush his enemies… Gods, now she knows how wrong she had been… But why should she learn it the hard way? Why?

No answer came into her mind but the sardonic idea that destiny gets jaded every once in awhile and wants to play with mortal lives. Too bad for her, it seems like she's destiny's favorite toy.

She now knows that real fear is what she is experiencing right now. Fear is the undesirable feeling ebbing and creeping into her mind and body leaving nothing in her soul but a feeling of utter helplessness. Fear is what keeps her going and yet, fear is also the one mockingly whispering in her mind that there is no hope of survival so she might as well stop her futile attempts.

Her heart feels exploding any minute now, whether from extreme exhaustion or fear, or maybe a combination of both, she doesn't really know... The thin line between the two is blurred by her fear but only one thing remains apparent to her mind and that is to run, to try to escape, to try the slim probability she has to survival. She must live another day, she can't die just yet, no, not until she sees him one more time, to be assured that he is well.

_They're toying with us!!! _Her poor mind screamed in fear to her.

She can feel them as close by as a breath away. She knows that if they're serious enough and if they really want them caught and dead in a minute, they could do so but no, they chose to play with them just like how hyenas plays with their prey. They're playing with them, humoring their desire to live and for their own minds' perverse pleasure. She felt that they are preys waiting until the hunters cut the chase and decide to tear the preys apart…

_Tear us apart…_

That thought sent shivers down her spine. Death is an acceptable notion for her but she most certainly dislikes the idea of being torn into pieces. She cast a look at her teammates. Just like her they were desperately trying to focus as much as possible chakra into their feet and legs to outrun their chasers, a feat that is next to impossible but in vain they try.

She is so scared of their proximity; she didn't dare activate her bloodline. She would certainly faint or die if she see them less than a yard or two from them.

_How could it turn out like this???_ She asked pitifully over herself as she ran for her life…

Everything was going out smoothly. The mission was a piece of cake. In fact it was so easy that even gennins can do the job. A parcel. Yes, delivering a parcel. A mere parcel, but now they're being chased to the ends of the earth because of it, being chased by none other than the ever infamous Akatsuki.

I'd be damned if I were them. Only three 16 years old chuunins being chased by three S-class criminals in the BINGO book. Who wouldn't be scared shitless?! A mass murderer who murdered his entire clan, a literally blue-skinned cold blooded killer and a fervent explosionist after your tail!!! I certainly don't want to be them…

Hinata was snap back to reality from her musing of how the events turn out like this when she heard some explosions. She frantically, scanned her teammates. She saw Kiba bleeding and burnt on his back. She instantly understood what had happened. Kiba saved her. The explosion was originally aimed at her but he threw himself in the middle and got hit of the blast instead of her. She saw Shino fighting with the shark-looking guy and much to her horror, she saw how the big sword shredded across his left shoulder to his right chest. Shino's bleeding profusely. She immediately tried to get to her teammates but a pained screamed was heard from Kiba.

"RUN HINATA!"

She hesitatingly turned around, but she felt something was wrong. Something feels SO wrong but still, she ran as what was dictated to her by her teammate and by her own mind. She hadn't gone a meter or two when she bumped into something real hard. She looked-up directly to see two blood red orbs. It was the eyes of Uchiha Itachi. THAT was what was wrong, Itachi was nowhere in the battle field. THAT was her mistake over looking an important detail such as Uchiha Itachi.

Now, she is sure she will certainly die an unlikely death… She can't tear her eyes from him even though she must look away and before she knows what was happening, she was drifting to a myriad of endless darkness…

She woke-up into a small darken room. Straining her eyes, she saw Shino and Kiba. They were badly wounded, the worse she ever saw them. In a minute she was by Kiba's side, healing his back with the little healing jutsu she knows.

"Hinata, don't mind me too much, go to Shino. He's in a much worse condition than I am…" he said after the burn in his back was bearable enough.

She nodded her head and rushed to Shino's side. It wasn't just a plain gash, it was shredded wound and the skin around are also shredded. She bit her lower lip. She knows that it MUST be painful and yet, Shino remained quiet as usual. She wants to cry for him…

She was in the middle of healing Shino when the door slammed open. There came the shark-looking guy with blue skin. Hoshikage Kisame, that is if she remembered right of what she had read in the BINGO book. He abruptly stalked his way toward her and Shino. She closed her eyes, afraid of what will come. She heard him snicker.

"Oh, your little friend here healed you. Too bad it wouldn't do any good..."

She heard him say and laugh at the end and she felt Shino being moved. With that she snapped her eyes open. Kisame was dragging Shino so hard, it's like his shoulders would give-off. All she can do was to stare in fear for him. She heard Kiba shouting profane words but to no avail, he had successfully dragged him out the little room. Just when she thought it was over, the moment Kisame exited the room, a blonde guy came and just like Shino, he dragged Kiba forcefully out. She wanted to scream in anguish of how the events turned out but her vocal cords were not cooperating with her, all the sound die in her throat and all she could manage was a small whimper.

She started whimpering and crying. She felt so helpless, scared and weak. She wishes to live and she mourned of how it is being cruelly torn from her, mourned that there would be no chances of them meeting again. She knows exactly what was coming. She knows what they will do to her teammates and later, also to her. All that awaits them in the end of all of this is… Death. Death, it was so thick in the air at the moment she can choke on it…

_One more chance, to see him, a glimpse of him before death whisk her away from him. _That was her prayer her desperate wish to the being that presided in the high heavens.

She continued to cry, pray and wish as she continually hear and feel the vibrations, explosions and screams of her teammates. She covered her ears and shut her crying eyes close tight. She wants to block it all away. She wanted to be anywhere at the moment, just not here. She then felt everything came to a stop. The, vibrations on the wall, explosions and the pained screamed all stopped. Then her heart skipped a beat. She heard the door creaking open.

_Is this it? My turn to die? _She asked herself, suddenly so weary from all of this…

She saw him, the man whom Sasuke had left the village for in quest of power. The reason why Sasuke was removed from her life…

A bitter sweet smile made it into her face before she could stop it. She just discovered something. The being that presided in the high heavens, the oh-so acclaimed supreme ruler of heaven and earth has a wry manner of granting prayers. She almost laughed if it was not because of the fact that she is so drained and tired to actually laugh. Here she is standing right before Uchiha Itachi, earlier she was desperately praying to have one more glimpse of him, of Sasuke.

_Kami-sama you really are smart, aren't you? Funny, my only answered prayer is only half correct however, my prayer was a glimpse so for that reason I guess this is as accurate as it could get. They sure have a lot of similarities, the color of hair the indiffe--_

"Hello Hyuuga…" He said in a bored casual manner that stormed her away from her musings. And it hit her of why he is here, it dawn at her that the bringer of her death. The hand of death that will whisk her away from all the possibilities of seeing Sasuke one more time and with that realizations fear was reinforced in her heart in waves.

"G-go away p-please…" Fear was evident in her trembling voice. He fully faced her and stared deeply into her pale orbs. His countenance was the epitome of utter calmness. His eyes feels like they are bearing and looking into her very soul and for the second time around his presence today, it was not Itachi that she saw for a moment but Sasuke. A glimpse of her beloved… Her heart clenched painfully in her chest.

"Is that really what you wanted me to do so?" He asked calmly, betraying no emotion.

For what seems to be a long time he stared at her. At the girl who his brother cares for. She's beautiful, he'll give her that. If the circumstances were different he'd probably… He didn't dare finish that trail of thought, one is because he simply doesn't wish to and second, the girl must die because it was an order and for his brother's sake, one more loss wouldn't make that much of a difference now, or so he believed. Third, is because he heard her reply. The answer that will seal her destiny…

"No… Don't leave…" she said quietly.

There her fate was sealed, sealed by herself…

She knows that she WILL die for certain and she knows why he is there with her. She knows exactly why. For some reasons, she felt better. Knowing she'll die in his hand. She thought that it's better to die in the hands of someone she at least knows a little about than to fall in the hands of total stranger. She'd rather die in the hands of someone from the same village that she hailed from. Plus, her added bonus of a fleeting glimpse of Sasuke in his visage.

She remember once, she had seen him once or twice with his younger brother in the local festival, actually back then they looked happy and content.

She wept pure tears. She cried for what had become of this prodigy. She cried of what the relationship of the two brothers had become. She cried for all those who had fall before him. She cried knowing no matter how much of Sasuke she could see in his visage he is still not him, he is but a glimpse of her beloved… And most of all she cried for the chance of seeing Sasuke is no longer possible for her…

"Why do you weep Hinata?" He asked in an audible whisper, it was soft but still it was devoid of any emotion, and he walked calmly closer to her.

She was taken back. He called her by her name. Though she was surprised it didn't show because she continued to shed her tears.

_So you do remember…_She thought to herself woefully with a bitter smile.

When she was about to answer his question she felt an immense wrenching pain by her stomach. Whatever was pressed into her stomach is surely sharp. She stopped breathing, feeling something entering her trachea, pushing-up to her throat and finally out to her mouth. It tastes metallic. She touched her lip and saw it was blood. She looked down from his eyes to her stomach. She saw a kunai firmly pressed into her stomach by Itachi's hand. It hurts a lot. She can feel the enormous pain surging through her flesh. She wanted to scream in pain but once more all she managed to give is a pained whimper…

"Shhhh… It will only hurt for a few seconds" She heard him say.

She felt her knees giving-off and her eyelidss feeling like leads and he wrapped his free hand around her waist, the one that isn't gripping at the kunai. And he drew her closer to him. All she could do is to close her eyes. She surrendered to the pain and to her fate…

"It will be over soon. Soon it would only be an endless darkness, no more pain…" He whispered into her ears as he turned the kunai inside her gut.

This time her whole body gave-up on her. The pain was too much to bear… He lowered himself and her to the ground. He laid her there and removed the kunai. She pressed into her wound. It was lethal. She felt him leaving and with what little strength was left in her, she used it all to grasp his cloak.

"S-stay with me p-please. I d-don't want t-to die alone…" She said through labored breathing.

She saw him nod his head and went down to the ground. He picked her in a sitting position and he reclined into the wall with her back pressed into him. Even if he's an enemy or the person who killed her, she simply doesn't care anymore... She just don't want to die all alone... He is a person albeit with a doubtful humanity after the heinous crimes he had committed, however, now that she is knocking by death's door, her mind keeps on whispering to her of what a wonderful human he had once been. She gazed at his face and for a fleeting moment she saw the glimpse of the Itachi she once knew and a sad smile crossed her face as her eys closed on their own accord...

It seems to be getting darker by every passing second and in the haze of darkness, of the fading pain and the numbing cold embrace of death, she saw a vision. A glimpse of a long past, she saw the paper lantern shining brightly in the darkness, fireflies flying everywhere, the festival banners, colorful stalls, the aroma of foods, oh and the sounds of drums, traditional flutes and the people's merry voices but what caught her attention was the vision of three people. She saw a little boy happily laughing and flailing his arms, a gesture to emphasize a point as he recount his adventure to a taller and older boy with the same raven hair as the younger one, who is calmly nibbling at his takuyaki as he listen to the younger one gracing him with occasional nods and an occasional gentle smile to the girl with short indigo locks eating a cotton candy beside the boy, smiling coyly… And at her impending demise, she smiled at the surreal memory of a long forgotten past that seemed to be a life time ago…

And just like what he had said, the pain was gone, only numbness remains. She knows that the dusk of her life was coming… She could feel her life slipping by her fingers and the endless darkness' welcoming cold embrace…

_Goodbye Sasuke…I'd be watching you from now on…_

_A/N: I might write a oneshot prequel of this story. Depends on my mood or if my usual laziness decides to leave me alone long enough for me to actually write it down and of course, if ever I do write the prequel, it depends on how you guys respond to this story. You don't need to review if you don't want to… I don't need or want so many reviews, all I need is a single review to make me post it but also, it only takes one review that will make me never post the prequel. Okay? But really, the biggest factor is my laziness and my whims. Enough with my blabbering. Bye. _

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